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Friday, 29 March 2013

Those dwarven names are confusing. Not only do they rhyme but they're also similar to one another. Anyway, here's another member of Thorin's company - Fili.

While I enjoyed painting this one, there were still the same issues I had with some of the other plastic dwarves, i.s. lack of texture on hair and clothes. Highlighting these was a bit of a challenge but I think it worked out pretty well in the end.

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

This mini has been sitting half painted on my shelf for several months and I pretty much had to force myself to finish it. Much as I like the sculpt, I struggled to keep the colors dark and still distinct from one another. In the end it turned out OK I guess.

I used Vallejo still water in the puddle on the base and some glowing medium for the symbols on his cloak and whatever it is that is dripping from the staff.

Monday, 25 March 2013

Time for another piece from my Malifaux backlog. This one has been waiting for painting for a few months and I finally decided to deal with it.

Watcher is a relatively cheap model in game that has quite a few uses. He can help with card control and he can also be an efficient objective grabber. I wanted to make sure that the way the model is prepared reflects these so I glued him to a tall column, making it look as if he was gliding. I also added some vine as I felt that the column looked empty without it.

I used Vallejo Old Gold for the basecoat on the metallic parts and then highlighted these using paints from Andrea gold set. After that it was just a matter of a few glazes of green and brown. I also added a simple OSL effect, nothing too fancy but I'm pleased with the effect nonetheless.

Sunday, 24 March 2013

Just a quick update on the progress on my Hobbit stuff. While I enjoyed painting both of them a lot, I had some problems getting Bilbo's eyes right as they're poorly sculpted. Other than that, the minis are really nice.

Now back to more Hobbit stuff. I also try to catch up on my other projects (mainly Malifaux) so more updates should follow soon :)

Thursday, 21 March 2013

I really liked the way this character was portrayed in the movie. I think Ken Stott did a great job and managed to capture the essential feel of age, fierceness and a kind of grace that is immediately associated with Balin. These also include the way he fought, using very elegant, swift cuts rather than heavy hits.

GW's sculpt of this dwarf is my favorite so far (at least compared to other ones I've already painted). His face with its large nose and bushy eyebrows, is really well sculpted and evokes the feelings I mentioned earlier.

I worked on his clothes using two shades of red to make sure his inner robe looks different that the jacket. Since the pose of this mini is rather static I placed him on the edge of platform to make him look as if he was waiting for a fight.

Monday, 18 March 2013

Lucius doesn't look like a warrior but he can be one if it's needed. Despite his inconspicuous looks, he is one of the most terrifying creatures in Malifaux. It's also hard to actually land a hit on him and make him bleed. Other than that he has some very nice tricks up his sleeve that allow him to quickly slingshot reinforcements where they're most needed. This skill should suit Lady Justice pretty well.

So, without further ado, here's Lucious, the power behind the throne.

I had another mishap while painting him as I applied varnish brush-on and followed with a light spray of matt varnish. It created some nasty residue in placed where the first varnish hadn't dried completely and I needed to repaint the red jacket.

I painted the golden embellishments on his sleeves and collar using NMM as I think this technique works well for materials. The mask was painted using darker gold to add an element of contrast that I thought was necessary.

I'm making slow but steady progress with my Malifaux backlog. I try to paint them while working on the Hobbit stuff. The first quarter of the year is almost over and I've already painted 9 of the remaining 36 minis. I may actually be able to complete the rest by the end of the year!

Friday, 15 March 2013

It's been around for a while now and it has already become a successful campaign. There are still 30 days left and a lot can happen (in terms of new stretch goals/bonuses) so I'm more than happy to share it here.

Warzone is a game that got me interested in this hobby all those years ago. I love the universe of Mutant Chronicles and the game was pretty good too.

The new digital sculpts look really good and multipart makes them even more exciting. I'm definitely going to back this project up, I'm just waiting to see the new options as they appear to make a good choice. I even managed to convince my older brother (who started the hobby with my but gave it up after a while) and my younger brother to get involved. This means I'll be ordering three sets + some additional models. Can't wait!

Thursday, 7 March 2013

These minis have always been among my favorites from Malifaux range The sculpts are dynamic and the level of detail is excellent. What's more, they have nice fluff.

Basically they're ex-mages that worked for Arcanists but were captured and brainwashed by the Guild. Now they're used to fight against their former employees.
In game they function as debuffers and pretty solid (magical weapon) fighters.

I spent a few evenings painting them and paid a lot of attention to saturating their robes. I used several glazes of blue and brown to give them a nice, deep hue.The washes from Vallejo worked really well with brown here. I was pretty pleased with the effect. Unfortunately, after spraying them with an anti-shine varnish from Army Painter, they were...glossy. So I went over them with an anti shine medium from Reaper. And that was my mistake. An ugly looking whitish residue formed on the minis. I removed some of it before it dried completely but some stayed there. Rather than stripping the mins off paint, I tried to save the minis by going over that with washes one more time. It improved the look but still, a very decent paintjob turned into a run-of-the-mill one.

Tuesday, 5 March 2013

The first thing that I noticed when I first saw the picture of dwarves from "Hobbit" was that they were all sporting rather dark colors. It posed a bit of a challenge as painting them this way would be a-tiresome, b-it would make them look boring and too monochrome. In order to avoid that I decided to stick to the official codex color scheme but still stick to my way of keeping the highlights smooth and colors dark.

I started with Ori (the one with a sling) and Nori. I thought that the brothers would be a good choice to start working on Thorin's company. Both miniatures are pretty well sculpted though Ori seems a bit more dynamic. The level of detail is really good (at least for plastic minis), although I have one main issue with them. Their hair has no texture, which means that I had to paint these onto a flat surface. It was a challenge but I think it paid off in the end.

I also wanted to make sure that the brown elements (plenty of this color to be used with Thorin's company) were nicely saturated and had varied shades. In order to achieve that I used several glazes to make the colors ricer. Ori's tunic, for one, was treated with glazes of red and purple.

Well, I guess there's no better song to go along with this entry than this one: